Page 81 of Eagle

“Of course, hon.”

I jogged to the bathroom and looked around. All my stuff was in the car that was left on the side of the road. Releasing a heavy sigh, I grabbed Eddie’s toothbrush and slathered toothpaste over it, aggressively brushing with one hand, looking through the drawers for a hairbrush with the other. All I found was a comb and a beard brush.

After rinsing my mouth, I dragged my elastic from my hair. I combed my thick locks and then used the beard brush to get all the bumps out before putting the elastic back in. If he woke up, I didn’t want to look like complete shit and have dragon breath.

Stepping back, my stomach did flips as I saw blood on my clothes. More than likely, it was Eddie’s. Maybe Jackal’s. My jaw clenched as redness crept up my neck to my face. My eyes glistened in the mirror, but tears didn’t flow. Maybe I had cried them all out already.

My breath hitched and my chin trembled, so I inhaled deeply, then blew it out slowly. I repeated that several times until the redness subsided.

“Hey, girl. You okay?” Daisy asked from the other side of the door.

With one last deep breath in and out, I left the bathroom. I grabbed one of his shirts from a drawer, changed out of mine, then nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

After I slipped my shoes back on, we headed downstairs. I followed Mama Hen through the bar area and down the hallthat was off limits to the women. Some of us had snuck in a few times, but never popped into any of the doors. I’d always wanted to know what they all were, but never expected to find out like this.

Daisy held my hand the whole way down. I squeezed hers hard and it was the only thing keeping me from falling apart. Mama Hen was power walking, so we took long strides to keep up.

She got to one of the doors and knocked lightly, but didn’t wait for an answer before opening it and waving us inside. I sucked in a breath, then stepped inside, unsure of what to expect.

Once inside, she shut the door and Daisy released my hand as I took slow steps toward the bed. Shiv was sleeping on a cot against the wall, but stirred as we found our places in the room.

Standing next to the bed that looked just like one from a hospital, but with no beeping machines, I let my hand hover over his.

“You can grab it,” Shiv said as she walked up next to me.

Pressure rushed behind my eyes, so I licked my lips and cleared my throat. “Is he…”

She blew a breath through puffed cheeks. “Without an actual hospital,” she said with a roll to her eyes, “it’s really hard to say. But the bullet passed from his back through his abdomen and didn’t appear to hit any organs or arteries. But, he did lose a good bit of blood getting him all the way back here.” She blinked slowly at me. “You know, instead of a hospital.”

Mama Hen shot a stern look toward Shiv, so I quickly jumped in. “We really appreciate your help. Maybe we can catch up later.” She had no clue what this life was like. I hoped I could somehow explain to help her understand without her calling thecops or endangering her further.

I grabbed Eddie’s hand and threaded my fingers through his, even though they were limp. Looking up at something besides his pale skin, there was a bag of something hanging with an IV hooked to him. “What is that?”

Shiv stepped around me and grabbed the bag, looking at it like she was inspecting the levels. “Saline. And we had a few bags of blood, which I won’t even ask how we got,” she said with a tilt of her head. She turned back to me. “We didn’t have as much blood as I would have recommended, but beggars can’t be choosers, I guess. So this saline will at least help add more fluids back into him. It’s all I had to work with, so I took it.”

Nodding, I finally looked back down at him. I ran my fingers across his cheek and tucked his hair behind his ear before cupping his cheek.

The door opened and Falcon knocked as he and Jackal walked in. “How’s he doing?” Falcon asked as he walked next to the other side of the bed. Jackal stood next to him, but his eyes were fixed on Shiv.

I looked at her and she cleared her throat as she ran her palms over her shirt. She had on the same dress pants and shirt, but it was now untucked and she was a little closer to my height, since she didn’t have her shoes on.

“He’s not out of the woods, if you really want to know. I’m a psychiatrist, not a surgeon, and I had very limited means. But I did my best,” Shiv said as she put her hands on her hips. She had no problem staring Falcon down, but she hardly looked at Jackal, even though his eyes hadn’t moved from her.

Falcon nodded but Jackal spoke up. “We appreciate your help, little bird.”

Shiv’s lips quirked and her chest heaved. I had always beenjealous of the fact you could never tell if she was blushing, but I knew her. If I touched her face, it would be red hot.

“I hope your leg is alright,” she said to Jackal, finally glancing up at him.

He shrugged. “Good as new.” He crossed his arms and looked at me. “Hawk wants to see you, little one.”

I leaned down and kissed Eddie’s cheek. “I’ll be back soon.” I stood back up and hugged Shiv. “Thank you for everything. I’ll find you in a few.”

Mama Hen opened the door. “Go on, hon. I’ll wait here with your friend.”

I gave a squeeze to Eddie’s hand once more, then reluctantly let go and followed Falcon and Jackal out. Daisy walked with us, but once we got to another door and stopped, Falcon kissed her temple and asked her to go wait for him. She hugged me then gave a reassuring smile before she headed back for the bar.

“Come on in, sweetie,” Hawk said as he waved me inside.

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